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Latest from WBEZ Chicago Public RadioenEmanuel backed by tech's most powerful playershttp://www.wbez.org/news/emanuel-backed-techs-most-powerful-players-111814
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/main-images/rahm-google-AP-Photo-Charles-Dharapak-01282009_0.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>Mayor Rahm Emanuel is scheduled to make a stop Thursday with one of his coziest constituencies: Chicago&rsquo;s tech community.</p><p>It turns out, the warm, fuzzy feeling between the two is mutual.</p><p>One of Emanuel&rsquo;s major successes as mayor has been his courting of tech companies. During his reelection campaign, Emanuel has touted the jobs he&rsquo;s brought to the city, especially from tech companies.</p><p><a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140815/BLOGS11/140819897/chicagos-tech-job-growth-near-the-top-of-u-s-cities">Chicago added nearly 12,000 tech jobs from 2011 to 2013 according to a report from CBRE Inc</a>.</p><p>With Google in the West Loop and Motorola Mobility in Merchandise Mart alongside local startups like Braintree, Chicago has been boosted by the tech community.</p><p>And so has Mayor Emanuel.</p><p>A scroll through donor lists to Mayor Emanuel&rsquo;s campaign reads like the Fortune 500 list for tech. It includes not just the most well-known names in Chicago&rsquo;s tech community, but also the heads of Apple, Google and Microsoft, all donating since Emanuel began his first run for mayor in 2010.</p><ul><li>Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google; donated $55,300 last year, including $50,000 in December</li><li>Steve Ballmer, retired CEO of Microsoft and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers; donated $15,300 since 2013, including $10,000 in January</li><li>Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook; donated $35,700</li><li>The late Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple; donated $50,000 in 2010, while his wife Laurene Powell Jobs has contributed $55,300.</li><li>Elon Musk, head of Tesla and SpaceX; has contributed $55,300 since 2013</li></ul><p>Julie Samuels, executive director of tech lobby group Engine, said that for a long time the tech industry didn&rsquo;t want to engage in politics, but has become more comfortable interacting with candidates.</p><p>&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;re seeing them get involved because the industry is maturing,&rdquo; Samuels said.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Search Chicago poltical donations with our <a href="http://interactive.wbez.org/campaigncash/">Campaign Finance Tracker</a></strong></p></blockquote><p>What&rsquo;s unusual in Emanuel&rsquo;s case is that most heads of global tech companies don&rsquo;t involve themselves with local elections.</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=785381&amp;default=contributor">FollowTheMoney.org, Schmidt has contributed $888,055 to 53 different campaigns</a>, but Emanuel is the only mayoral candidate on that list. The same is true for Ballmer and Musk.</p><p>Facebook&rsquo;s Sandberg has backed two other mayoral candidates; Adrian Fenty in Washington, D.C., and Christine Quinn in New York. Both lost in primaries.</p><p>Chicago&rsquo;s tech community has been <a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150331/BLOGS11/150339968/chicago-techies-rally-round-emanuel">very vocal</a> in its support for Emanuel, especially since the Feb. 24 election when challenger Jesus &ldquo;Chuy&rdquo; Garcia pushed the mayor into a runoff.</p><p>The tech sector&rsquo;s share of Emanuel&rsquo;s overall war chest is relatively small. Emanuel has raised more than $40 million for associated campaign committees since he started running for mayor in 2010.</p><p>Emanuel has raised a little more than $1 million from the tech world, according to an analysis of data from the Illinois State Board of Elections.</p><p>The Center for Responsive Politics tracks the tech community&rsquo;s donations at the federal level. According to research director Sarah Bryner, $1 million for a single candidate is exceptional.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of money,&rdquo; said Bryner of the Washington-based campaign finance watchdog group. &ldquo;Just as point of comparison, the top candidate receiving money from this industry in our books was Corey Booker, who took in $405,000 for a Senate race.&rdquo;</p><p>Bryner says Silicon Valley&rsquo;s political involvement in Chicago is a natural evolution from its growing political savvy at the federal level. That&rsquo;s especially true of companies like Google and since President Barack Obama has come on the scene. Much of that involvement has also come from Obama&rsquo;s efforts to cultivate relationships with the tech community.</p><p>Engine&rsquo;s Julie Samuels says Mayor Emanuel has now also tapped into those relationships with Silicon Valley, which go back to his time in the Clinton administration.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll see people getting involved in the race over a random alderman or some other local position,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something specific to this particular mayor, this particular moment.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, Samuels expects to see more tech companies getting involved in state and local politics because many issues, especially those involving sharing economy companies like Uber and AirBnB, are first hashed out in cities and states. (WBEZ&rsquo;s research shows that neither Uber nor AirBnB executives or the companies themselves donated to Emanuel or Garcia&rsquo;s campaigns.)</p><p>&ldquo;So much regulation that affects these companies happens at the local level,&rdquo; Samuels said. &ldquo;These companies &mdash; even when they&rsquo;re not based in Chicago &mdash; they play a huge role in our lives.&rdquo;</p><p>While national figures have more name recognition, some of the largest dollar figures have come from Chicago tech companies.</p><p>Groupon CEO Eric Lefkofsky gave more than $400,000 to Emanuel&rsquo;s campaign. A Groupon spokesman said Lefkofsky was traveling and was unable to comment.</p><p>Venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker donated $167,000, while Morningstar CEO Joe Mansueto added $160,000.</p><p>1871 CEO Howard Tullman, who has donated $5,300, dismissed notions that campaign contributions to Emanuel meant more access.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think people who contribute to him think they are buying much of anything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He is independent and objective and tells it like it is.&rdquo;</p><p>Tullman has known Emanuel for decades. He says he supports Emanuel because he feels the mayor understands and advocates for the tech industry. He points to job growth within the Merchandise Mart &mdash; especially Motorola Mobility &mdash; as proof.</p><p>&ldquo;Motorola had a chance to go to Sunnyvale [California] or Chicago. That was a lot of lobbying by Rahm and other city leaders to retain them and that&rsquo;s thousands of jobs. Ultimately he&rsquo;s been really good for that,&rdquo; Tullman said.</p><p>With those gains, leaders in Chicago&rsquo;s tech industry want to avoid any possibility of breaking that momentum</p><p>&ldquo;I would really hate to take three steps back and say why don&rsquo;t we give somebody a trial or learn on the job and learn how to do this?&rdquo; Tullman said.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/chrishagan"><em>Chris Hagan</em></a><em> is a WBEZ web producer. </em><a href="https://twitter.com/nialaboodhoo"><em>Niala Boodhoo</em></a><em> is host of WBEZ&rsquo;s Afternoon Shift.</em></p></p>Thu, 02 Apr 2015 15:02:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/news/emanuel-backed-techs-most-powerful-players-111814'Uber-gentrification' a force in Chicago's West Loophttp://www.wbez.org/news/uber-gentrification-force-chicagos-west-loop-111257
<p><p><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/uber-gentrification1.jpg" style="height: 240px; width: 320px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; float: right;" title="Meatpacking trucks in the shadows of the new Google Chicago headquarters on West Fulton Market. (WBEZ/Natalie Moore)" />Chicago&rsquo;s West Loop used to be called Skid Row &mdash; a dark stretch of emptiness and foreboding industrial buildings. Then in 1990, a local talk show host moved her Harpo Studios into a former cold storage warehouse on west Washington Street.</p><p>Call it the Oprah Effect.</p><p>The neighborhood underwent a massive transformation that hasn&rsquo;t really slowed down since. Oprah Winfrey is long gone. But blocks away another new occupant in a former cold storage warehouse is now the one making waves.</p><p>Call it the Google Effect.</p><p>Google won&rsquo;t move into its new Chicago headquarters on West Fulton Street until next year. But it&rsquo;s already turbocharging more development, a phenomenon some researchers call &ldquo;uber-gentrification.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;If you think of uber relative to what &mdash; so now it&rsquo;s not residential, it&rsquo;s uber relative to the kind of commercial space or the kind of manufacturing that was there,&rdquo; said Janet Smith, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who compiled the gentrification index.</p><p>Smith says while people aren&rsquo;t really being displaced, the same can&rsquo;t be said for businesses.</p><p>&ldquo;And now you&rsquo;re finding art galleries, you&rsquo;re finding bougie restaurants. So what&rsquo;s replacing it is both a different clientele and different land use and probably contributing differently to the tax base,&rdquo; Smith said.</p><p>A flood of new techworkers is expected to fuel even more exclusive retail in the area.&nbsp; Already this year the Soho House opened a private club with a rooftop pool. It joined swanky cocktail venues and other seen-and-be-seen hotspots on Randolph and Fulton.</p><p>On a recent Friday evening before the sun set, customers crowded Green Street Smoked Meats. As a line of people stretched near the door, the inside sounded more like a nightclub than a rib joint.</p><p>Even during the economic downturn, this corridor proved to be recession proof with celebrity chefs setting up shop along restaurant row.</p><div class="image-insert-image "><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/insert-images/westloop-small_0.gif" title="It's easy to see the redevelopment of West Fulton from 2007 to 2014 in Google Streetview images." /></div><p>&ldquo;If private sector decisions move the community to where we might have more higher-end retailers, where we might have higher-end restaurants, then let it be,&rdquo; said Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Randolph Fulton Market Association, a nonprofit economic and community development group.</p><p>It&rsquo;s not just the private sector. Investment has been deliberate here. Two decades ago the city created a tax increment financing, or TIF, district to spur economic development.</p><p>The city has also given a slew of incentives to the tech industry, and the number of building permits has remained steady.</p><p>But this part of the West Loop isn&rsquo;t all shiny new offices and high-end restaurants. The area is eclectic and gritty. Remnants of the old meatpacking district are still on full display.</p><p><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/uber-gentrification2.jpg" style="height: 240px; width: 320px; float: left; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="A meat warehouse on West Fulton Market (WBEZ/Natalie Moore)" />There&rsquo;s the rumble of trucks, the scent of animal carcasses, and on a chilly afternoon, workers washing a sidewalk in front of El Cubano Wholesale Meats.</p><p>Rolando Casimiro is one of the owners. He said he&rsquo;s not fazed by all the new development.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve always embraced the new businesses, the new restaurants, the new nightclubs. We&rsquo;ve had our issues, we&rsquo;ve resolved them as neighbors. We have a great relationship standing with them. The issues that arise, we deal with them as neighbors. We don&rsquo;t need the government to come in,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Businesses want uneven sidewalks fixed and more stoplights, but less city interference in landmarking historic buildings. Now that the area&rsquo;s a hip destination, they worry landmark restrictions could ultimately hurt their property&rsquo;s resale value.</p><p>Roger Romanelli says he hears that concern a lot. But overall, he thinks &ldquo;uber-gentrification&rdquo; is working out just fine here.</p><p>&ldquo;People are evolving together. People are working together. There&rsquo;s no winners and losers. There are winners and winners and more winners and we&rsquo;re all working it out together &mdash; residents, businesses and property owners,&rdquo; Romanelli said.</p><p>But UIC&rsquo;s Janet Smith said there are losers when it comes to who rents.</p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="http://interactive.wbez.org/gentrification/widget/28/" style="float: right; clear: right;" width="400"></iframe></p><p>&ldquo;If people think the next best thing is I can rent this out to a high-end gallery rather than to a low-end gallery, they&rsquo;re going to go with the high-end gallery. Well, the low-end gallery is showing the up-and-coming artist, not the established,&rdquo; Smith said.</p><p>As the business boom continues, a sort of exclusivity sets in &mdash; for better or worse.</p><p>&ldquo;We have to think about what are we doing five years from now that we are either going to regret or we missed an opportunity to keep that diversity that everyone wants,&rdquo; she said.</p><p>Back when Fulton and Randolph were sleepy, industrial strips, the homeless and unemployed in the area used to hustle for warehouse work.</p><p>People like Clifford Smiley, who Romanelli and I encountered on the street during our interview.</p><p>&ldquo;They moving a lot of homeless people out of here and we don&rsquo;t have no place to go, and place to get honest money. These restaurants are coming along but what about us? I&rsquo;ll wash a window for a dollar,&rdquo; Smiley said.</p><p>Romanelli then turned to Smiley and discussed an employment training program. After talking for a moment, Smiley quietly asked Romanelli if he&rsquo;d buy him a sandwich.</p><p>Romanelli said he could get him something to eat at the nearby Starbucks.</p><p><em><a href="http://www.wbez.org/users/nmoore-0" rel="author">Natalie Moore</a> is WBEZ&rsquo;s South Side Bureau reporter. <a href="mailto:nmoore@wbez.org">nmoore@wbez.org</a>.&nbsp;Follow Natalie on <a href="https://plus.google.com//104033432051539426343" rel="me">Google+</a>, &nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/natalieymoore">Twitter</a></em></p></p>Thu, 18 Dec 2014 07:52:00 -0600http://www.wbez.org/news/uber-gentrification-force-chicagos-west-loop-111257The digital afterlifehttp://www.wbez.org/programs/afternoon-shift/2014-10-31/digital-afterlife-111035
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/main-images/Beersheba_War_Cemetery.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>The world has changed more in the past 10 years than in the previous 500.</p><p>It used to be that when mankind stopped wandering and settled down with a desire to own property and things, laws or wars were required to settle disputes.</p><p>Property was easy to manage, because it was mostly physical. Land, papers, livestock and personal belongings. Today our music, pictures, books, movies, financial information and medical records are digital, and managing property has become exceedingly complex.</p><p>Somewhere along the way fiduciaries were created, people whose job it was to represent the best interests of those who were either dead or incapacitated. Into their hands, the law gave access to property and things that might be stored on that property or in other places.</p><p>People began to plan their estates and create orders for their handpicked fiduciaries to carry out upon their death. In this way, property passed from one person to another in a more or less peaceful and orderly fashion.</p><p>While most people still have physical properties like homes or cars or businesses, many people have developed digital assets that are increasingly valuable.</p><p>Online banking, insurance, forms filled out for the department of motor vehicles, medical records, credit cards and almost every aspect of our lives is digitized today.</p><p>We have tens if not hundreds of passwords to access our digital lives. And we have the cloud.</p><p>Because the World Wide Web is only 25 years old, we don&rsquo;t have much of a plan for how to pass along our digital property.</p><p>One big difference is that until recently, individuals owned and controlled their physical property, because it was mostly in a physical space where people could go and collect it. In the digital age, for the most part, they still own and control their physical property, but it&rsquo;s often maintained by a third party like your photos on Facebook or your online bank records or your investment portfolio.</p><p>There are three things you need to know about your digital life if you are thinking about how to preserve it should you become incapacitated or die.</p><p><strong>The Fiduciary System</strong></p><p>The age-old fiduciary system still is strongly in place. If you draw up a will and name a fiduciary to handle your business, the courts of law will honor this.</p><p>The problem with fiduciaries is that they can often access your physical property and records without too much trouble, but they might not be able to access your digital property.</p><p>This is because each state has different laws governing digital assets, if they have laws at all, and companies like <a href="https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html">Yahoo</a>, <a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/14300?hl=en">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/150486848354038">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-violation/topics/122-reporting-violations/articles/87894-how-to-contact-twitter-about-a-deceased-user#">Twitter </a>and many others like banks or even government agencies have very few policies detailing how loved ones or even fiduciaries can get access to a deceased or incapacitated person&rsquo;s account. And with no overarching law to govern them, it&rsquo;s kind of like the wild west out there.</p><p>That was until the <a href="http://www.uniformlaws.org/Committee.aspx?title=Fiduciary+Access+to+Digital+Assets">Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act</a> was created last summer.</p><p>&ldquo;What the new law does is it extends the old law of fiduciary access to allow people to manage someone else&#39;s property and it extends it to digital assets which are now online,&rdquo; Ben Orzeske, legislative council for the Uniform Law Commission said.</p><p>If you put in your will how you would like your digital assets handled upon your death or incapacitation, UFADDA, as the law has come to be called, should help insure that your digital assets become accessible to your fiduciary.</p><p>This is if you live in Delaware, of course.</p><p>For now, it&rsquo;s the first and only state to have adopted UFADDA.</p><p>Because the uniform legislation was created and approved this summer and most legislative sessions in most states won&rsquo;t begin again until January of 2015, the law hasn&rsquo;t had a chance to circulate widely.</p><p>Legal experts say that the most effective way to handle your digital assets is to include them in your will, so even without UFADDA firmly in place in all 50 states, you&rsquo;re more likely to secure your digital belongings if you include information about them in a will.</p><p><strong>Digital Death Services</strong></p><p>Like digital undertakers, a new type of service is emerging as people using social media pass away. As of 2012, there were upwards of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/death-facebook-dead-profiles_n_2245397.html">30 million accounts of dead people</a> on Facebook alone. And <a href="http://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/digital-assets">a recent study estimates</a> our digital assets average about $34,000 in value, which creates the impetus for entrepreneurs to provide the kind of help that can make it easy to manage your digital estate upon your passing or incapacitation.</p><p>Companies like <a href="https://www.afternote.com/">Afternote</a>, <a href="http://www.b-emortal.com/">b-eMortal</a> and <a href="https://www.deadmansswitch.net/">Dead Man&rsquo;s Switch</a> offer users a way to do everything from distribute their digital assets to providing access by sending emails posthumously. <a href="http://www.thedigitalbeyond.com/online-services-list/">This is a pretty comprehensive list</a> of digital death services, but none of them are the complete package, and few will provide the kind of peace of mind that legally documenting your digital assets in a will could provide.</p><p><strong>Password Management</strong></p><p>The simplest solution to the problem of what happens to your digital life once you die is to just give someone you trust access to your passwords.</p><p>&ldquo;Estate planning experts say the most important thing you can do, if you don&rsquo;t have a will, is just to have a list of your accounts and your usernames and passwords in some secure place, whether that be online or offline or wherever and to let someone that you trust know about it.&rdquo; Maeve Duggan, a research analyst with Pew Research Center, said.</p><p>Password management systems can be a useful way keep your digital assets protected while at the same time creating the peace of mind in knowing that someone other than you, whom you trust, can access your information should something happen to you.</p><p>Some of the best password management systems are <a href="https://agilebits.com/onepassword">1Password</a>, <a href="https://keepersecurity.com/">Keeper</a>, <a href="http://www.roboform.com/">RoboForm</a>, <a href="https://msevensoftware.com/msecure_ios">MSecure</a>, <a href="https://www.dashlane.com/">Dashlane</a>, <a href="https://www.passwordbox.com/">PasswordBox</a> and <a href="https://lastpass.com/">LastPass</a>. There are many others with too many features to mention, but they offer a good way to control where you digital assets go if you don&rsquo;t want to provide those instructions in a will.</p><p>Whatever way you choose to preserve your digital assets for those who come after you, you might want to consider your priorities.</p><p>&ldquo;I kind of see online assets as falling into two general categories,&rdquo; Maeve Duggan said. &ldquo;The first has a really practical or financial value. Stuff like your online bank accounts, any medical records, insurance documents, loans. The second is the sentimental, nostalgic kinds of things. Photos, music, certain emails. But I will say that it depends on which you think is more important to prioritize.&rdquo;</p><p><em><a href="http://www.wbez.org/users/takimoff" rel="author">Tim Akimoff</a> is the Director of Digital Content at WBEZ. You can follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/timakimoff"> Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/timakimoff"> Facebook. </a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p></p>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 11:58:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/programs/afternoon-shift/2014-10-31/digital-afterlife-111035In the age of social networking, there's no such thing as privacyhttp://www.wbez.org/blogs/leah-pickett/2013-05/age-social-networking-theres-no-such-thing-privacy-107021
<p><p><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/110207_zuckerberg_facbook_ap_328.jpg" title="File: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Paul Sakuma/AP)" /></p><div class="image-insert-image ">Surprise, surprise: Millenials are more willing than any other generation to share personal information online.</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">According to a <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/21/millennials-personal-info-online/2087989/" target="_blank">new survey</a> from the University of California&#39;s Center for the Digital Future, Millenials, ages 18-34, were more likely to share their location in order to receive coupons from nearby businesses: 56 percent vs. 42 percent of those 35 and over. More than half of the Millenials surveyed also said that they would share private information with a company if they got something in return.&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">This push for active participation in social media may seem harmless at first, until you look at the bigger picture and cringe at the Orwellian nature of it all.</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">For example, have you ever bought a product at your favorite store, and then saw an advertisement for a similar product pop up on your Facebook sidebar just moments later? Cue the Big Brother shiver up your spine: <a href="http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-partner-acxiom-epsilon-match-store-purchases-user-profiles/239967/" target="_blank">that&#39;s no coincidence</a>.</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">Everything that we post to our personal websites can be tracked, and the Internet is always watching. Whether we admit to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we live in a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/opinion/schneier-internet-surveillance" target="_blank">surveillance state</a> that is growing more efficient and eerily omniscient by the day.&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon rule the Web; and consequently, have delved deeper into our private lives and personal interactions than ever before. Apple tracks us on or iPhones and iPads. Google tracks us on every page that it has access to, and Facebook does the same, even following&nbsp;<a href="http://www.firstpost.com/tech/facebook-finally-admits-to-tracking-non-users-133684.html" target="_blank">non-Facebook users</a> in their pursuit of prime marketing data. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him, and discovered that <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/im-being-followed-how-google-151-and-104-other-companies-151-are-tracking-me-on-the-web/253758/" target="_blank">105 companies tracked his Internet use</a> in one 36-hour period.&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">Sometimes we fight back, like when Instagram proposed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/technology/facebook-responds-to-anger-over-proposed-instagram-changes.html?_r=0" target="_blank">giving advertisers free reign over all posted photos</a> and then backed down when users threatened to boycott. Sometimes the Internet giants admit their wrongdoing, like when Google apologized (after being slapped with a $7M fine, of course) for &quot;<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/13/google-hit-7m-fine-scooping-email-passwords-medica/" target="_blank">data-scooping</a>&quot; personal information from zillions of unencrypted databases.</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><div class="image-insert-image ">But the truth is, these highly-sophisticated apps and websites thrive on monitering our every move, and we may be powerless to stop them. If the <a href="http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/surveillance-and-security-lessons-petraeus-scandal" target="_blank">director of the CIA</a> can&#39;t maintain his privacy on the Internet, then what hope is there for the rest of us?</div><div class="image-insert-image ">&nbsp;</div><p>Consider the <a href="http://blog.hostgator.com/2013/04/23/1984-in-2013-privacy-the-internet/" target="_blank">major data breaches</a> of networking sites in 2012 alone:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>LinkedIn: 6.5 million passwords stolen</li><li>Yahoo: 400,000 passwords stolen</li><li>Global Payments: 1.5 million customers&#39; credit card numbers and PINs exposed</li></ul><p>Facebook experienced yet another <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/facebook-admits-it-was-hacked/" target="_blank">privacy breach</a> in February, two weeks after Twitter made a <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/twitter-hacked-data-for-250000-users-stolen/" target="_blank">similar admission</a>. Also, users have been <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/quitting-facebook/story?id=18668978&amp;page=2#.UYdPqZUlbFJ" target="_blank">quitting Facebook in record numbers</a>&nbsp;for months now. Perhaps people are finally catching on to the &quot;privacy paradox&quot; and deciding to forgo social media altogether, although the more likely scenario is that this decline is only temporary.&nbsp;</p><p>Statistics prove that most of these Facebook users will <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/02/05/facebook-break-study/" target="_blank">likely return</a>&nbsp;(because, sadly, nearly 40 percent of Americans <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/social-media-addiction-based-fear-missing-143357943.html" target="_blank">would rather have a root canal</a>&nbsp;than give up their social networking profiles for good) so where does that leave us? We can combine forces to change the pervasive nature of the Internet, or we can look inward and start by changing ourselves.</p><p>If we really want our private lives to remain private, then we can&#39;t give up without a fight.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Leah Pickett writes about popular culture for WBEZ. She still uses&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/leahkpickett" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, but has given<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet" target="_blank"> a year without Internet</a> some serious thought.&nbsp;</em></p></p>Mon, 06 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/blogs/leah-pickett/2013-05/age-social-networking-theres-no-such-thing-privacy-107021Did NBC's Brian Williams ambush the Emanuel brothers?http://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-03/did-nbcs-brian-williams-ambush-emanuel-brothers-106257
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/main-images/Screen shot 2013-03-25 at 7.23.55 AM.png" alt="" /><p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;"><object align="right" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc906184" width="420"><param name="loop" value="false" /><param name="play" value="false" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=51298904&amp;width=420&amp;height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="launch=51298904&amp;width=420&amp;height=245" height="245" loop="false" name="msnbc906184" play="false" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" quality="high" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><strong>WATCH THIS VIDEO ... </strong>of NBC&#39;s <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540/vp/51298904#51298904" target="_blank">Brian Williams interviewing the three Emanuel brothers</a>:&nbsp;Mayor Rahm, bioethicist Ezekiel and Hollywood &quot;super-agent&quot; Ari, recorded&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2013/03/rahm_zeke_ari_on_nbcs_rock_cen.html" target="_blank">March 8 in New York City</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;">Note the (evidently simulated) slide show of old family photos, the reference to the family as &quot;<a href="http://chickaboomer.com/2013/03/americas-jewish-kennedys-anger-over-brian-williams-rock-center-interview-this-is-not-what-we-agreed-to.html" target="_blank">America&#39;s Jewish Kennedys</a>.&quot;</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;">What do you think of it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;">Love-fest? Puff piece? Affectionate portrayal?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;">Or hatchet job?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;">Ari Emanuel reportedly puts it in the latter category. The&nbsp;<em>New York Post</em>&nbsp;quotes sources as saying that he sent a &quot;<a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/ari_rips_nbc_for_rock_chat_Artqfqo1zvGAQEi1UZL9YI" target="_blank">a fiery legal letter to NBC</a>,&quot; complaining the interview, which aired Friday, was so aggressive as to catch the brothers off-guard.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;"><strong>&#39;I THINK WE&#39;RE GOING TO WIN.&#39; </strong>That&#39;s the optimistic <a href="http://presspass.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/24/17440713-post-show-thoughts-the-debates-over-gun-control-and-gay-marriage" target="_blank">prediction of David Boies</a>, one of the lawyers set to argue Tuesday before the Supreme Court that California&#39;s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.<br />* Among those to be seated as a guest of Chief Justice John Roberts: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-prop.8-chief-justices-cousin-a-lesbian-will-attend-prop-8-hearing-20130324,0,834185.story" target="_blank">His lesbian cousin, who wants to marry her gay partner</a>.<br />* Court expert Jeffrey Toobin: 10 years ago, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/04/01/130401taco_talk_toobin" target="_blank">Justice Scalia was right about the future of gay marriage</a>.<br />* Chart outlines <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/24/us/how-the-court-could-rule-on-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0" target="_blank">ways the court could rule</a>.<br />* New poll finds <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/03/24/175201923/millennials-and-same-sex-marriage-a-waning-divide" target="_blank">young Americans&#39; growing support for same-sex marriage</a> &quot;one of the biggest shifts we&#39;ve seen.&quot;<br />* Same-sex marriage convert Sen. Rob Portman&#39;s son writes in the Yale Daily News: &quot;In many ways, <a href="http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/03/25/portman-coming-out/" target="_blank">it&rsquo;s been a privilege to come out so publicly</a>.&quot;<br />* Politico: <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/republicans-gay-marriage-89265.html" target="_blank">Republicans see cash in shift toward gay marriage</a>.<br />* Mediaite: <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/r-i-p-is-conservatism-dead-3/" target="_blank">Is conservatism dead?</a><br />* Video:&nbsp;<a href="http://gawker.com/5992162" target="_blank">Starbucks CEO tells shareholder to sell if he can&#39;t support marriage equality</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;"><strong>&#39;WE LIVE IN A GOOGLE AND WIKIPEDIA SOCIETY, AND IF KIDS NEED TO KNOW SOMETHING, THEY CAN LOOK IT UP.&#39;</strong> And so, the&nbsp;president of the Illinois Science Teachers Association tells the <em>Tribune&nbsp;</em>Illinois is ready for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-science-standards-20130325,0,2404339,full.story" target="_blank">dramatic changes in science courses, textbooks and testing</a>, maybe as soon as this fall.<br />* Illinois bill would <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-rocky-clark-bill-20130325,0,5165928.story" target="_blank">improve medical insurance for high school athletes</a> with catastrophic injuries.<br />* Chicago Public Schools has yet to deliver on <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/18260588-761/worthless-words-cps-yet-to-dole-out-scholarships-decade-after-e2-disaster.html" target="_blank">college scholarships for kids whose parents&nbsp;died in 2003 E2 nightclub stampede</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;"><strong>GOOGLE ALERTS: WINDING DOWN? </strong>If you&#39;re among those who&#39;ve come to rely on Google&#39;s service to advise you of new Web content on a specific topic, be warned:&nbsp;<a href="http://mashable.com/2013/03/23/google-alerts/">Mashable.com says Alerts may be on the way out</a>, but it notes an alternative.<br />* Wish you had a Wikipedia page of your own?&nbsp;Now&nbsp;<a href="http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2013/03/24/this-site-lets-you-pretend-you-have-your-own-wikipedia-page/" style="font-family: georgia, serif;" target="_blank">you can pretend</a>.</span></p><hr /><p><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;"><em><strong>ANNOUNCEMENTS.</strong></em><br /><em>* Suggestions for this blog?&nbsp;<a href="mailto:cmeyerson@wbez.org?subject=Things%20and%20stuff">Email anytime</a>.<br />* Get this blog by email, free. <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=feedburner/AELk&amp;amp;loc=en_US" target="_blank">Sign up here</a>.</em><br /><em>* Follow us on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/wbez" target="_blank">@WBEZ</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/meyerson" target="_blank">@Meyerson</a>.<br />* Looking for the most recent WBEZ Meyerson News Quiz? <a href="http://www.wbez.org/tags/news-quiz" target="_blank">Here you go</a>.</em></span></p></p>Mon, 25 Mar 2013 05:00:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-03/did-nbcs-brian-williams-ambush-emanuel-brothers-106257Alderman's plan could make being homeless more expensivehttp://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-03/aldermans-plan-could-make-being-homeless-more-expensive-105893
<p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradhoc/6949003508/" target="_blank"><img alt="Please help. by bradhoc, on Flickr" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/homeless%20chicago.jpg" style="float: right; height: 213px; width: 300px;" title="Please help. by bradhoc, on Flickr" /></a><strong>&#39;YOU CAN CERTAINLY UNDERSTAND THE ALDERMAN NOT WANTING ANYONE MAKING A BUS SHELTER THEIR HOME, BUT YOU HAVE TO QUESTION THE VALUE OF ... A $200 FINE.&#39; </strong><em>Sun-Times</em> columnist Mark Brown takes a closer look at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/18636344-761/brown-we-cant-print-what-some-homeless-men-say-about-ald-capplemans-efforts-to-help.html" target="_blank">a Chicago alderman&#39;s assertion that he seeks to &quot;help&quot; the homeless</a>.<br />* <em>Chicagoist: </em>&quot;<a href="http://chicagoist.com/2013/03/04/cappleman_gives_salvation_army_one.php" target="_blank">We know Cappleman won&#39;t stoop to dropping live grenades in food trucks</a>, but ...&quot;<br />* City&#39;s long-term plan: <a href="http://eedition.chicagotribune.com/Olive/ODE/ChicagoTribune/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=Q1RDLzIwMTMvMDMvMDU.&amp;pageno=MQ..&amp;entity=QXIwMDEwMg..&amp;view=ZW50aXR5" target="_blank">No one left homeless</a>.<br />* Once-homeless couple: &quot;In the dead of winter, <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bonzani-couple-20130305,0,4785364.story" target="_blank">we lived under a tarp</a>.&quot;</p><p><strong>WHAT&#39;S CLOSED? WHAT&#39;S NOT?&nbsp;</strong>Check the Chicago-area <a href="http://www.emergencyclosingcenter.com/ecc/home.jsp" target="_blank">Emergency Closing Center</a> for updates on weather-related shutdowns of schools, businesses and government offices.<br />* <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-weather-forecast-snow,0,6178175.story" target="_blank">Big storm targeting Chicago brings heavy snow</a>.</p><p><strong>A LEGEND DIES.&nbsp;</strong>Dawn Clark Netsch, Illinois&#39; first female candidate for governor, an architect of the state&#39;s constitution and a longtime champion of civil rights and ethics in government, is dead. <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/18644853-418/dawn-clark-netsch-iconic-illinois-politician-dies.html" target="_blank">Carol Marin has the story</a>.</p><div><strong>&#39;THE PACE OF KILLING HAS SLACKENED NOTICEABLY.&#39;</strong> Columnist Steve Chapman says Chicago&#39;s February murder total was <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/chi-chicagos-murder-progress-20130304,0,7111293.column" target="_blank">the lowest &quot;in 56 years. Yes: 56 years.&quot;</a><br />* McCarthy wants to <a href="http://chicagoist.com/2013/03/04/chicagos_top_cop_wants_to_expand_ho.php" target="_blank">expand &quot;hot zone&quot; approach</a>.</div><div>* <em>Sun-Times</em> editorial: McCarthy&#39;s strategy &quot;<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/18625658-474/editorial-police-supt-garry-mccarthys-latest-strategy-makes-sense.html" target="_blank">makes sense</a>.&quot;</div><div>* Illinois&#39; senators propose <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-pn-senate-gun-measure-20130304,0,3759702.story" target="_blank">bipartisan bill to prevent one person who&#39;s allowed to buy firearms from buying a gun for another person who isn&#39;t</a>.<hr /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color:#a52a2a;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><em>Suggestions for this blog?&nbsp;</em></span></span><span style="font-size:20px;"><em><a href="mailto:cmeyerson@wbez.org?subject=Things%20and%20stuff"><span style="color:#a52a2a;">Email anytime</span></a></em></span><span style="color:#a52a2a;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><em>.</em></span></span></p><hr /><p><a href="http://www.chicagodetours.com/chicago-pedway-map/" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/Screen shot 2013-03-04 at 9.36.47 PM.png" style="height: 126px; width: 300px; float: right;" title="Portion of ChicagoDetours.com map" /></a><strong>S</strong><strong>IGNS, SIGNS ...</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cta-brown-purple-line-wells-street-bridge-construction,0,7158228.story" target="_blank">Confusing signs on CTA trains complicated travel</a> during the first day of this week&#39;s Wells Street bridge project downtown. The CTA says it&#39;ll be better from now on.<br />* <strong>Chicago&#39;s underground -- the downtown pedway</strong> -- gets fresh love in <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/03/04/in-the-jumble-of-the-pedway-can-an-amateur-map-fill-in-the-blanks" target="_blank">two new maps</a>.</p></div><div><strong>SMACKDOWN: SIRI vs. GOOGLE.</strong> If you&#39;ve been asking questions of an iPhone, you might want to break up with Siri and instead chat up Google&#39;s search app. <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2021316/siri-vs-google-search.html" target="_blank">Check out&nbsp;<em>MacWorld</em>&#39;s head-to-head tests</a>&nbsp;to see which is <em>much</em> faster.</div><div>* Google reported <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/04/google-is-building-a-same-day-amazon-prime-competitor-google-shopping-express/" target="_blank">building competitor to Amazon Prime</a>.<br />* Steve Johnson: <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-talk-johnson-waiting-20130305,0,4722064.column" target="_blank">Smartphones take dread out of waiting for stuff</a>.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>#TWITTER IS FOR #HATERS.</strong>&nbsp;A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/03/04/twitter-reaction-to-events-often-at-odds-with-overall-public-opinion/" target="_blank">new study by the Pew Research Center</a>&nbsp;finds those who Tweet tend to be more liberal than conservative. But it also concludes that, across the political spectrum, what stands out is &quot;the overall negativity.&quot;</div><div>* So Twitter&#39;s not great as &quot;<a href="http://daily-download.com/twitter-public-opinion-collide/" target="_blank">a snapshot of public opinion</a>.&quot;</div><div>* &quot;Who&#39;s Feuding Now:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/03/whos-fighting-who-map-conservative-fingerpointing/62741/" target="_blank">A Map of Conservative Fingerpointing</a>.&quot;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>&#39;I HAVE BILLS TO PAY AND CANNOT EXPECT TO DO SO BY GIVING MY WORK AWAY FOR FREE TO A FOR-PROFIT COMPANY SO THEY CAN MAKE MONEY OFF OF MY EFFORTS.&#39;</strong> <a href="http://natethayer.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-freelance-journalist-2013/" target="_blank">An exchange between <em>The Atlantic</em> and a writer</a> shines light on the state of freelance journalism these days.<br />* <em>Washington Post</em>&nbsp;website introduces <a href="http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/206152/washington-post-introduces-sponsored-content/" target="_blank">sponsored content</a>, letting advertisers create blog posts, videos and graphics for its home page.</div><hr /><p><em><strong>ANNOUNCEMENTS.</strong></em><br /><em>* Get this blog by email, free. <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=feedburner/AELk&amp;amp;loc=en_US" target="_blank">Sign up here</a>.</em><br /><em>* Follow us on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/wbez" target="_blank">@WBEZ</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/meyerson" target="_blank">@Meyerson</a>.<br />* Looking for the most recent WBEZ Meyerson News Quiz? <a href="http://www.wbez.org/tags/news-quiz" target="_blank">Here you go</a>.</em></p></p>Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:00:00 -0600http://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-03/aldermans-plan-could-make-being-homeless-more-expensive-105893Drone fight over Illinoishttp://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-02/drone-fight-over-illinois-105524
<p><p><a href="www.suntimes.com/18213738-761/lawmaker-seeks-to-regulate-use-of-drones-in-illinois-before-they-arrive.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Drone makes a test flight in Mesa County, Colo. (AP Photo/Mesa County Sheriff's Unmanned Operations Team)" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/RS6999_AP120124033602-lpr.jpg" style="height: 168px; width: 300px; float: right;" title="" /></a><strong>HOME-DRONE FIGHT.&nbsp;</strong>An Illinois lawmaker wants some&nbsp;<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/18213738-761/lawmaker-seeks-to-regulate-use-of-drones-in-illinois-before-they-arrive.html" target="_blank">privacy guidelines to cover potential use of <strong>drone aircraft</strong> by state and local crimefighters</a>.<br />* Pentagon introduces new type of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/medal-will-honor-troops-engaged-in-cyber-ops-drone-strikes/2013/02/13/bdc26f64-7629-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html" target="_blank">medal for troops who remotely pilot unmanned vehicles</a>.</p><p><strong>&#39;ONE OF THE GREAT BATTLES OF ALL TIME.&#39;</strong> That&#39;s the way <a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130214/NEWS10/130219873/how-the-american-us-airways-merger-will-affect-chicago" target="_blank">one airline industry consultant describes what&#39;s ahead</a> for Chicago now that American Airlines and US Airways have <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/18211434-761/us-airways-american-announce-11b-merger.html" target="_blank">announced their merger</a>.</p><p><strong>&#39;WE WILL NOT SURRENDER. WE WILL NOT APPEASE. WE WILL BUY MORE GUNS THAN EVER.&#39; --&nbsp;</strong>Commentary for&nbsp;<em>The Daily Caller</em>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/13/stand-and-fight/" target="_blank">NRA chief Wayne LaPierre</a>.<br />* Sen. Kirk says he has parents&#39; OK to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wbez.org/news/sen-kirk-talks-guns-health-and-presidential-fist-bump-105516" target="_blank">name anti-gun trafficking bill after Hadiya Pendleton</a>.<br />* Family says Pendleton murder suspect is a &quot;<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-family-hadiya-pendleton-slaying-suspect-good-kid-20130213,0,3977389.story" target="_blank">good kid</a>.&quot;</p><p><strong>&#39;THE MOMENT MATTERED, BY THIS POINT, BECAUSE EVEN RUBIO SAID THAT IT DID.&#39;&nbsp;</strong>The New Yorker&#39;s Ian Crouch takes&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/02/marco-rubio-water-bottle-moment.html?mobify=0" target="_blank">an intimately detailed look at Marco Rubio&#39;s hydration break</a>. (Rubio comes from a Gulp State, no?)<br />* NRA, other lobbyists, corporations paid big for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/twitter-a-live-megaphone-for-lobbying-groups-companies/2013/02/13/dbe023ac-758d-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html" target="_blank">Twitter placement during State of the Union address</a>.</p><p><strong>SCHOOLS OUT.</strong>&nbsp;The good news? The Chicago Public Schools system has shrunk the number of schools it&#39;ll consider closing. The bad news?&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-129-on-new-chicago-schools-closing-list-20130213,0,6621050.story" target="_blank">The list is still 129 schools long</a>.<br />* West Side mom: &quot;<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/18187995-761/cps-chief-releases-list-of-129-schools-that-could-close-west-siders-vow-to.html" target="_blank">They want to send our kids into unfamiliar streets they don&rsquo;t even know</a>.&quot;<br />* Map and sortable list of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wbez.org/news/more-20-percent-city-public-schools-list-potential-closure-105519#list" target="_blank">schools eligible for closure</a>.</p><p><strong>CTA&#39;S BRIGHT FUTURE.&nbsp;</strong>Armed with a $30 million credit from the company that makes those new rail cars with center-facing seats, the CTA&#39;s buying eight more cars -- and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/18212618-418/cta-buying-new-rail-cars-at-bargain-price-adding-brighter-interior-lights.html" target="_blank">replacing the lighting in all the new cars with LED fixtures</a>&nbsp;that won&#39;t yellow the way traditional fluorescents do.</p><p><strong>PEOPLE WHO NEED <em>PEOPLE?&nbsp;</em></strong><a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/time-warner-in-talks-to-sell-off-majority-of-magazines/" target="_blank">Time-Warner&#39;s seeking buyers for most of its magazines</a>, including <em>People</em>, <em>InStyle</em> and <em>Real Simple</em>. But it may keep <em>Time</em>&nbsp;for a time. And it may also not sell <em>Fortune</em>, because the selling price would be a ... big sum of <em>Money</em>. Which it&#39;s also reportedly not selling.<br />*&nbsp;<a href="http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/chicago-media-blog/16069511/nbc-5%E2%80%99s-wert-to-head-local-broadcasting-for-tribune-co" target="_blank">Channel 5 boss leaving</a>&nbsp;for Tribune Co., including WGN-TV and WGN Radio (which, full disclosure, formerly employed this here news blogger).</p><hr /><p><em><strong>ANNOUNCEMENTS.</strong><br />* Yesterday&#39;s post incorrectly characterized the state of the Blackhawks&#39;&nbsp;streak of games without a regulation loss. <a href="http://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-02/marco-rubios-sip-water-sets-twitter-afire-105493" target="_blank">That text has been corrected</a>, with thanks to Friend of the Blog <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stephen-anzaldi/6/816/7b1" target="_blank">Stephen Anzaldi</a>.<br />* Have more corrections for this blog? <a href="mailto:cmeyerson@wbez.org?subject=Things%20and%20stuff">Email anytime</a>.<br />* Follow us on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/wbez" target="_blank">@WBEZ</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/meyerson" target="_blank">@Meyerson</a>.<br />* If it&#39;s Thursday, it must be time to make up this week&#39;s news quiz. Be here Friday morning, bright and early, for your chance to score.</em></p></p>Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600http://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-02/drone-fight-over-illinois-105524Does the cold ease your fear of climate change? Not so fasthttp://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-01/does-cold-ease-your-fear-climate-change-not-so-fast-105058
<p><p><a href="www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-singledigit-freeze-continues-20130122,0,7629806.story" target="_blank"><img alt="Chicago cold, as conveyed on an iPhone" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/2013-01-22%2006.03.47.jpg" style="float: right; height: 142px; width: 300px;" title="Chicago cold, as conveyed on an iPhone" /></a><strong>COLD RELIEF -- NOT.</strong>&nbsp;If <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-singledigit-freeze-continues-20130122,0,7629806.story">Chicago&#39;s cold snap</a> eases your fears about global warming, not so fast. As NASA explained in 2010, weather like this is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/coldweather-2009.html">consistent with a global warming trend</a>. And there&#39;s still that record snowless run -- something the <em>Tribune</em>&#39;s Eric Zorn rightly calls &quot;<a href="http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2013/01/hump-week.html">downright creepy</a>.&quot;<br />* Chicago preps for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/science/earth/23adaptation.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=2&amp;">permanent heat wave</a> (from May).<br />* City has official &quot;<a href="http://www.chicagoclimateaction.org/pages/how_climate_change_affects_chicago/5.php">climate action plan</a>.&quot;<br />* 5 southern cities with <a href="http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/southern-cities-more-snow-than-chicago-20130117">more snow than Chicago</a>.</p><div><strong>&#39;A LOUD -- AND, FOR THIS PRESIDENT, DAMNED NEAR DERISIVE -- DENOUNCEMENT OF ALL ... REPUBLICANS HAVE COME TO STAND FOR.&#39;&nbsp;</strong><em>Esquire</em>&#39;s Charles Pierce says <a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Why_The_Speech_Was_Important?spr_id=1456_6680630">President Obama&#39;s inauguration address</a>&nbsp;is already bothering people like Scott Johnson at <em>Power Line</em>, who says it wrought &quot;<a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/01/long-days-journey.php">serious intellectual destruction</a>.&quot;<br />*&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/01/21/how-the-inauguration-played-out-on-social-media/">Obama speech&#39;s most viral moment</a>&nbsp;(as reflected by Twitter).<br />*&nbsp;Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall: &quot;A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/opinion/bruni-a-map-of-human-dignity.html?_r=0">map of human dignity</a>.&quot;<br />* Owner of Stonewall Inn: &quot;It&#39;s like <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/its-owning-rosa-parkss-bus-stonewall-celebrates-inaugural-namecheck">owning Rosa Parks&#39;s bus</a>.&quot;<br />* <a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/21/where-in-the-world-is-mitt-romney-hint-not-in-d-c/">Romney&#39;s no-show</a> is a first in decades.<br />* Borowitz Report: Speech gives grateful Republicans &quot;detailed list of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/01/republicans-praise-obama-for-offering-bold-vision-to-thwart.html?mobify=0">things to thwart over the next four years</a>.&quot;</div><div>* White House staffer on online petition mania: &quot;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/we-the-people-white-house-petitions-obama-administration">My God, what have we done?</a>&quot;</div><p><strong><img alt="Sandburg's poem, typed on a manual typewriter on onionskin paper, was discovered by a library volunteer. | Photo by Ben Woloszyn" src="http://news.illinois.edu/WebsandThumbs/Librarymisc/Sandburg/poem_b.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 200px; float: right;" /></strong></p><div><strong>MUCH APPRECIATED.</strong> <em>Gawker</em>&#39;s list of <a href="http://gawker.com/5977431/heres-a-list-of-people-injured-or-killed-by-guns-on-gun-appreciation-day">people injured or killed by guns on Gun Appreciation Day</a>.<br />* <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57565070-93/groupon-puts-all-gun-related-promotions-and-deals-on-hold/">Groupon puts gun-related deals on hold</a>, angers gun-rights advocates.<br />* Carl Sandburg&#39;s <a href="http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0118unpublished_gun_poem_CarlSandburg.html" target="_blank"><strong>previously unknown poem</strong></a> about &quot;A Revolver&quot;: &quot;When it has spoken, the case can not be appealed to the supreme court ...&quot;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>FOOTBALL AND BRAIN DISEASE.&nbsp;</strong>New <a href="http://www.northshore.org/about-us/press/press-releases/">research to be made public today at 1 p.m.</a> links the problem more conclusively to NFL players.<br />* Dave Zirin in <em>The Nation</em>: &quot;Athletically gifted children see the NFL, with all its attendant dangers, as ... <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/172336/nfl-where-dr-kings-dream-goes-die#">their ticket out of poverty</a>.&quot;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>TE-ALL INTERVIEW?</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/katie-couric-to-interview-manti-teo/">Katie Couric&#39;s sit-down with Manti Te&#39;o</a>&nbsp;and his parents about his imaginary dead girlfriend airs Thursday. How hard can she press when she and Te&#39;o &nbsp;<a href="http://adage.com/article/agency-news/matthew-hiltzik-pr-guru-helping-te-o-s-story/239311/">share the same PR rep</a>?<br />* <a href="http://deadspin.com/5977190/a-near+complete-twitter-archive-for-lennay-kekua-and-ronaiah-tuiasosopo">Archive of tweets for Te&#39;o&#39;s fauxfriend</a> and the other guy linked to her digital life (and death).<br />* <a href="http://deadspin.com/5977632">Deadspin&#39;s hate mail</a> since breaking the story.<br />* Pulitzer winners <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20130121/pulitzer-prize-winners-discuss-manti-teo/index.html?mobile=no">analyze Deadspin reporting</a>.<br />* Guide to <a href="http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/how-to-verify-information-from-tweets-check-it-out/">avoiding Twitter scams</a>.</div><p><img alt="C2E2 poster" src="http://www.dailyblam.com/sites/all/files/Official-C2E2-2013-Poster.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 234px; float: right;" /></p><div><strong>A GREAT METROPOLIS.</strong> The official <strong>poster art</strong> for April&#39;s Chicago Comic &amp; Entertainment Expo (C2E2) puts <a href="http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2013/01/19/dc-entertainment-reveals-superman-poster-art-for-c2e2-2013">Chicago in the picture with the Man of Steel</a>.<br />* ... Which is appropriate, because much of <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-18/entertainment/chi-superman-sightings-chicago-20110918_1_superman-movie-henry-cavill-superman-reboot-man">the forthcoming movie was filmed here</a>.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><strong>SOMEDAY, YOU&#39;LL WORK FOR GOOGLE.</strong>&nbsp;Google founder Larry Page says&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wired.com/business/2013/01/ff-qa-larry-page/all/">his company could eventually employ a million people</a>.<br />* Yahoo sends ex-employees &quot;<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/21/just-want-you-back-for-good/">welcome back</a>&quot; packages.<br />*<em> </em>Job&nbsp;posting seeks &quot;<a href="http://gawker.com/5977105/inexperience-required">young journalists who don&#39;t know better</a>.&quot;<br />*&nbsp;<a href="http://metnews.biz/wordpress/">13-year-old news blogger</a>&nbsp;credentialed to&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/01/21/meet-ethan-sattler-13-years-old-white-house-reporter/">cover inauguration</a>.</div><hr /><p><em>GET THE LATEST. Sign up for <a href="http://services.chicagopublicmedia.org/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&amp;SURVEY_ID=13561">WBEZ&#39;s email blasts</a> to get updates on this blog and all the great features the site has to offer. (Note: The preceding sentence should not be interpreted to mean that this blog is a great feature; to the contrary, its construction </em>distinguishes<em> &quot;this blog&quot; from &quot;great features.&quot; It would be unseemly of this blog to proclaim itself a great feature, don&#39;t you think? That is left as an exercise for the reader.)</em></p></p>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600http://www.wbez.org/blogs/charlie-meyerson/2013-01/does-cold-ease-your-fear-climate-change-not-so-fast-105058Job cuts to cost Motorola tax credits http://www.wbez.org/news/job-cuts-cost-motorola-tax-credits-101706
<p><p>Google Inc.&#39;s plan to cut more than 700 jobs at Motorola Mobility&#39;s operations in&nbsp;Illinois&nbsp;means the company will lose the tax credits it receives from the state.</p><p>The&nbsp;Illinois&nbsp;jobs are among 4,000 job cuts Google announced at the struggling cellphone company Monday.</p><p>Earlier this year, the&nbsp;Illinois&nbsp;Legislature agreed to give Motorola Mobility more than $100 million in state tax credits if it maintained a work force of at least 2,500 in the state.</p><p>Illinois&nbsp;Department of Commerce spokeswoman Sandra Jones says Motorola Mobility has informed the state that the cuts will reduce the company&#39;s&nbsp;Illinois&nbsp;work force to about 2,250. Jones says the company will be able to reapply for the tax credits if it hires more people in the future.</p></p>Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:17:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/news/job-cuts-cost-motorola-tax-credits-101706Paging Dr. Googlehttp://www.wbez.org/blogs/bez/2012-05/paging-dr-google-98702
<p><div class="image-insert-image " style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/stethescope%20computer%20flickr.jpg" style="height: 300px; width: 300px; float: left;" title="(flickr/chrisinplymouth)" /></div><p>According to a <a href="http://pewinternet.org/%7E/media//files/reports/2011/pip_healthtopics.pdf" target="_blank">Pew Research survey</a>, eight in ten American Internet users look for health information online. As a result, doctors say they&#39;re seeing an uptick in patient anxiety--or as medical types like to call it, &quot;cyberchondria.&quot; The technologically savvy cousin of hypochondriasis is the result of unfounded anxiety concerning one&#39;s wellness brought on by visiting health and medical websites.</p><p><a href="http://fsmweb.northwestern.edu/faculty/facultyProfile.cfm?xid=18391" target="_blank">Dr. Rahul Khare</a> works in Northwestern Memorial Hospital&#39;s emergency department where he says many patients began using phrases like &quot;I was reading about...&quot; or &quot;I was looking it up online...&quot; a few years ago.</p><p>So how are sites like <a href="http://www.webmd.com/" target="_blank">WebMD</a> affecting patient care? How are physicians dealing with &quot;over-educated&quot; patients?</p><p>Join <em>Eight Forty-Eight</em> and Dr. Khare for this discussion Tuesday. Has the Internet changed your approach to health care? Is Dr. Google your primary physician? Call <strong>312-923-9239</strong> or hit us up on Twitter <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/848" target="_blank">@848.</a></strong></p><p><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/RS5468_P1030925-scr.JPG" style="width: 600px; height: 400px; " title="Dr. Rahul Khare answers questions 'Eight Forty-Eight' with Tony Sarabia (WBEZ/Kate Dries) " /></p></p>Tue, 01 May 2012 10:55:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/blogs/bez/2012-05/paging-dr-google-98702